Melanie, though she is sweet as sugar once you get to know her, is both extremely shy and incredibly self-conscious, mostly as a result of her size. She was only a little on the big side to begin with, but ended up on the wrong end of teasing through school, and turned to food as a way of making herself feel better.

Not too surprisingly, she started to get fatter, and the bigger she got, the more her self-esteem fell. As a result, her comfort eating (and weight) rapidly spiralled out of control, and she found herself spending most evenings on the sofa - which was only just big enough for her - eating her way through whatever she could find in the fridge, going to bed both very full and very depressed.

She's started trying to sort herself out recently, aiming for things such as going to the gym and not eating as much. The key word, however, is 'trying'. Still hasn't quite mustered up the courage to try the scale. One step at a time, though.

Melanie also plays the piano very well, but on no accounts ask to listen. She'll go all quiet and make an expression like the one in the picture. Although she's probably embarrassed at her pants fitting her a little more snugly than she remembers...